The U.K. parliament has officially approved a law that recognises digital assets as personal property on Tuesday, December 2nd.
Officially passed under the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025, the provision joins digital assets to other commonly recognised forms of physical property.
Up to this point, there was ambiguity as to how cases involving digital assets should be treated. Legal experts were unsure as to how digital assets should be classified. Objects of personal property rights are defined under the law as things in possession or things in action.
This new act adds on digital assets, with the official document saying that just because digital assets are neither things in action or possession, it does not mean they are not to be counted as personal property.
Other measures to loosen controls on cryptocurrency include a reversal of a ban on access to cryptocurrency ETNs by the FCA, implemented in October, a decision that was initially taken in 2021 when ETNs were judged as unsuitable for retail investors.
The decision has been lauded by pro-crypto groups in the U.K., but there are still issues to be solved regarding the taxation of crypto assets. The U.K. government has yet to receive any substantial amount in taxes from digital assets. The U.K. parliament said in its 2026 budget that it plans to raise a total of $417 million from cryptocurrencies by April 2030.